I purchased the Muhle Kosmo shaving brush with silvertip fibre (synthetic) 21mm and it came in the mail yesterday. Naturally, it was up in the rotation today, so I thought I'd give it a mini review.
My only two experiences with synthetics were an Edwin Jagger and a Body Shop, neither of which impressed me much (of the two I liked the EJ better but I felt the BS was way too floppy for my tastes).
When I took hold of the Muhle I was a bit disappointed. It looked great, the tips were very soft and the brush felt nicely solid in the hand, but it didn't seem to have the type of backbone that I wanted. Ah well, there's always B/S/T, right? Although I thought about trying it with a cream, I decided to give it a go with Proraso (white) from a tub. I read that some people have problems lathering the Proraso in one of the "overrated" threads, so I thought I'd give it a go.
The results -- I loaded for maybe 15 - 20 seconds. The lather did not look like much on the brush, but when I face lathered it absolutely exploded. I got a fairly thick, creamy lather -- enough for 3+ passes -- with minimal effort. Moreover, the brush felt wonderful on my face. Bottom line: I've never received such good results from Proraso.
Of course, I wondered if something else was possibly at play. It just so happened that I washed all my brushed last night as I've read that washing can help you create better lather. So tomorrow, I will lather the Proraso white with another brush (perhaps my Simpsons Colonel) to compare the lather vs. a clean badger. In the next few days I will compare the Muhle vs. other brushes with other soaps/creams to see whether today's results can stand up.
So Day 1 with the Muhle. So far, so good.
My only two experiences with synthetics were an Edwin Jagger and a Body Shop, neither of which impressed me much (of the two I liked the EJ better but I felt the BS was way too floppy for my tastes).
When I took hold of the Muhle I was a bit disappointed. It looked great, the tips were very soft and the brush felt nicely solid in the hand, but it didn't seem to have the type of backbone that I wanted. Ah well, there's always B/S/T, right? Although I thought about trying it with a cream, I decided to give it a go with Proraso (white) from a tub. I read that some people have problems lathering the Proraso in one of the "overrated" threads, so I thought I'd give it a go.
The results -- I loaded for maybe 15 - 20 seconds. The lather did not look like much on the brush, but when I face lathered it absolutely exploded. I got a fairly thick, creamy lather -- enough for 3+ passes -- with minimal effort. Moreover, the brush felt wonderful on my face. Bottom line: I've never received such good results from Proraso.
Of course, I wondered if something else was possibly at play. It just so happened that I washed all my brushed last night as I've read that washing can help you create better lather. So tomorrow, I will lather the Proraso white with another brush (perhaps my Simpsons Colonel) to compare the lather vs. a clean badger. In the next few days I will compare the Muhle vs. other brushes with other soaps/creams to see whether today's results can stand up.
So Day 1 with the Muhle. So far, so good.